Some people write to get traffic from the search engines, other people write to get readers. Many years ago (possibly back in 2008), if you wanted to rank for a keyword, all you would do is have the keyword in the title, have the keyword in the description, and have the keyword in the body. So what people would do is repeat it over and over and over throughout the post that the blog posts weren’t a good read for the readers. As the years went by, sites that had crappy content, but utilized “keyword stuffing” and spamming tactics, these sites lost their ranking, along with all the money they were generating. So people got smarter and wrote content that would get them ranked for a keyword that would fit the search engine’s algorithm. The problem with this is when the algorithm changes, you could lose your ranking overnight. This is why you want to build your list as early as possible. When you get a rush of traffic, you won’t lose your income once the algorithm changes and your site is no longer ranking for a specific keyword.

What about writing for the reader? When you write for the reader, the search engines may not know how to find you because you aren’t using certain keywords that get your posts ranked. So you may not be doing any Search Engine Optimization, but the people who do land on your site, they tend to stick around or join your mailing list. This process can be a slow one because you may only be getting about 30 visitors a day, but out of those 30 visitors, you may be getting three email opt-in per day. So 10% of your visitors are opting into your mailing list.

Remember that good content moves you forward no matter if it’s the search engine or if it’s social media, or if someone linked your post in one of their blog posts. Focus on creating content for the reader first. Not only creating content for your readers, but a lot of content for your readers. You want people to enjoy your content so much that they’re taking the actions you want them to take when they visit your site. So if you’re telling them to get your free eBook or video series by opting into your mailing list, they’ll do it at a much higher rate.

What’s better, getting 100,000 visitors and only 50 people subscribe a day or getting 200 visitors a day and 20 people subscribe a day? Some may say 50 people, but the conversion rate is only 0.005%. If you can increase the number of people visiting your site from 200 to 1,000, you’ll be getting 100 email subs a day. It may be harder to get 200,000 visitors to get 100 opt-ins than it is to get 1,000. Writing for the reader increases conversions. The more content you create, and the search engines notice good traction with that site, they’ll rank it higher because it’s something people want to read, even if you’re not trying to rank for a specific keyword.

Before you think about optimizing your site for the search engines, first optimize the site for your readers. If the readers are happy, the search engines will think, “Hey, this seems to be getting a lot of traction, let’s make sure people can find it on our search engine.”

Wanna to attract people who will genuinely care about your content, increasing your chances of getting leads and sales?